Every Great Decision
by Zarius
Summary: Fresh off of listening to The Doctor's lecture, the TARDIS fam react (spoilers for 12x03 Orphan 55)


**DOCTOR WHO**

**EVERY GREAT DECISION**

**WRITTEN BY ZARIUS**

* * *

Fresh off of listening to The Doctor's lecture, and as soon as the ship had landed, the rest of the TARDIS fam huddled around one another discussing what to do next.

"What's the plan fam?" asked Graham.

"I'm trying to come up with one that makes sense, because right now nothing does" Yaz confessed.

"Yeah, I mean...if what she said was true, about the Earth, then how could we have travelled in the first place? Does it no longer exist? Do the people we saved exist?" Ryan said, most confused.

"Do the people we didn't save survive?" Yaz added.

"I need a breather, we all do, and don't go kidding around that I need to suck my thumb and curl up in a corner" Ryan cautioned.

"Wouldn't dream of it son" said Graham, holding up his hands.

"Yeah, I'll join you for some air, what'll you do Graham?" said Yaz, waltzing towards the TARDIS door with Ryan and preparing to journey outside.

"Try to summon the Doc off the mount I guess" he said.

He put his hand in his pockets and broke away from the group, approaching the Doctor as she put her mind to work on the console.

"How are they?" she said, her eyes fixated on the rotating Colum, punching a few buttons and reacting at the tiniest of electrical bursts.

"You've turned their brains to mush, all without using your Vulcan mind tricks" Graham confirmed.

"Yeah, I did come on too strongly didn't I?" The Doctor replied.

"Full Thunberg" Graham replied.

"Now I know I'm in trouble" The Doctor said, gulping.

"Ryan was confused about one thing in particular Doc..you said what we just went through was one possible future, so how can it exist where it was? Does us knowing about it change history? Did it happen the same way?"

The Doctor looked back at Graham and leaned gently to her side on the console, relaxed, trying to make what she said next as uncomplicated as possible.

"Sometimes time can be rewritten, I don't make a career out of trying to do that, I work hard to keep fixed points from unravelling, but we live in a reality where everything can and has happened, sometimes we can reverse it, sometimes it feels as if this reality, or fate, chooses to show us what could have been and puts us in a position to do something about it, however large or small, and course corrects appropriately. Like I said, it depends on decisions; every great decision creates ripples Graham, a lesson for life you ought to take with you"

"Yeah, but...you're the sort of person who just might have taken a peek at how the world ended before, can you say for sure it can't sustain life again one day? Sorry, I know it isn't always a happy ending, travelling with you, but I'd like to die one day knowing it doesn't stay a pigsty, or that the elites who left it in that state didn't make a pigsty out of anyone else's pen"

"Oh don't worry, history's inconceivably kind to humanity as well as predictably cruel, I've seen timelines where the great and bountiful human empire left to travel the stars, putting the Earth far behind them, thinking of it as their one true shame for many different reasons besides the pollution...one of those shames was letting the television rot their minds for generations, putting more emphasis on streaming than saving"

The Doctor was swiftly rattled as another electrical spark ignited, giving her a mild shock. She shook off the buzzing sensation around her fingertips and resumed talking.

"Earth's a tough nut to crack, it sustained itself for billions of years, it even survived the pull of a magnetron which sent it far across space and caused it to settle in another galaxy entirely. It even got a different name"

"Like Orphan 55?"

"Just like Orphan 55, only it was christened Ravalox"

"Oh yeah, what caused that then?" Graham asked.

The Doctor looked at Graham with uncertainty and a conflict about her that convinced him that this was some secret shame of her own that she could not bear to share with him.

He had good reason to suspect this, for it had been a sin committed by The Doctor's own people in a bid to hide their secrets.

"Oh, story for another day?" Graham asked, not knowing this truth.

The Doctor put her hand on his shoulder and smiled.

"You know me so well" she said, and kissed him on the forehead. Graham's cheeks blushed bright red

"Right, I'd best see how the kids are keeping up, are you sure you don't need help with whatever it is you're doing?" Graham asked.

"Nope, I'm good"

"Oh, it's just; I was left feeling a bit useless back there. Sylis' dad wanted me to put a bomb together, I had to tell 'em I was only a bus driver, I'd love to learn a little more, thought I could watch a mistress at work"

"Now that there's a great decision"

The Doctor handed him a mallet she pulled up from beneath the console.

"Any time you see a spark pop up; give the old girl the proper dosage. Trust me, this is her best medicine"

"Let our powers combine" said Graham

The Doctor giggled.

"What are you on about?" she asked.

"Oh, just quoting some preachy cartoon Ryan used to watch...felt kind of apt given the situation" said Graham.

"Tell me more about it" The Doctor replied.

"You got the whole of the 90s?" said Graham cheekily.


End file.
